New Orleans In the US, we’ve had governmental shutdowns over recent years from time to time. Most of them have been relatively short. Services were disrupted. Federal workers were furloughed. When it was over, they received their back pay, and things went back to normal. During the interim, the government often maintained crucial services and benefits. These were legislative matters being worked out, even if with difficulty, over opposing positions held presumably in some good faith by elected officials swearing to govern for all the people and uphold the laws of the country.
This shutdown is different. We are turning over the days on the calendar towards the longest shutdown on record, already having seen it rank second. Little progress is in sight. Trump is in Asia and has been uninvolved in seeking a settlement. His main contribution seems to have been finding pots of money in and outside of government to keep his most favored federal workers in things like immigration enforcement and the military still paid.
If we ever had any doubt about the current government’s affection for lower income families, it has established once again that there’s no love there. The current threat is to go all Gaza, and cut off food stamps to eligible families on November 1st. To put a finer point on this threat, the notice is imbued with spite and invective. ACORN’s research director is based in Canada and is a veteran of political tussles between parties there. Still though accustomed to the hardball that comes with one party rule over government, he couldn’t help sharing the banner over the federal food stamp website, as he tried to advise us all about the coming cuts. Here’s what he found:
Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.
I’m not sure anyone could be more partisan than that or put a knife in any notion of good faith with the level of incivility dripping from every word. Remember, this is government website, not a Republican party WhatsApp or texting group. The dispute is about federal subsidies so that families can pay for health insurance. Whether you agree that these subsidies should be higher or lower, the disagreement has nothing to do with “illegal aliens” or “gender mutilation procedures.” Not only are Americans being asked to swallow party pap, but are being lied to at the same time.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have to access the Federal Communications Commission website regularly. Going to that site over the last weeks, one could be nostalgic for the old school shutdown standoff where it was “just the facts, ma’am.” Their banner simply said:
Due to a partial lapse in federal government funding, the FCC has suspended most operations effective 12:00 a.m. EDT on October 1, 2025. As a result, information on this website may not be up to date. Transactions submitted via this website or other FCC-systems might not be processed altogether or processing time may be delayed until appropriations are enacted. The FCC may not be able to respond to inquiries or response time may be delayed until appropriations are enacted.
Robert Kennedy, Jr’s Health and Human Services agency fell sort of in-between on the scale of partisanship. They still waived the Trump flag, but kept it civil in a lurid, all-red banner on their website saying:
Mission-critical activities of HHS will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown. Please use this site as a resource as the Trump Administration works to reopen the government for the American people.
Of course, proving the point of Trump’s own indifference, if you go on the website of the White House, you wouldn’t know there was shutdown or even a hint of any problems in our great country. The site announced,
WELCOME TO THE
GOLDEN AGE!